Sara Esser
Can Motivation and Support Lead to Academic Success?
Needs Assessment
When I began thinking of topics for my action research project, I began with a needs assessment for our weakest academic areas. My assistant principal informed me that to receive a commended rating for the 2010-2011 school year, 25% of students overall must make a commended score on the TAKS test, as well as 25% for each subgroup as well. This was a concern for my campus because our population of economically disadvantaged students is continually increasing, as well as the demands for state testing. This led me to think about the teachers on our campus. Although we all know who are economically disadvantaged students are, sometimes we are just concerned with them passing, not necessarily getting commended. What if we provided teachers with a list of their subgroup students with projected passing and commended rates, so they would know which students had the potential to meet that commended rating? Would they be more apt to push and motivate these students as the test got closer, and could this be the difference between an exemplary and recognized rating?
When I reviewed the testing requirements against our campus population, my campus meets the criteria for the subgroup economically disadvantaged for the following tests: 3rd, 4th and 5th grade reading and math. We do not meet this subgroup requirement in 5th grade science or 4th grade writing. When I looked a little closer at 5th grade, I noticed that we have 21 students in our economically disadvantaged subgroup. At a required 25% passing rate, that is only 6 students on the grade level that could make the difference between an exemplary and recognized rating. The action research plan that we agreed on is for me to meet with each team of teachers in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade, to discuss the students in their economically disadvantaged subgroup, and discuss ways we can motivate these students to feel confident and successful on the TAKS test. Hopefully with this extra motivation, this will provide the students with the confidence they need to succeed. I am looking forward to this project because it will give me the opportunity to manipulate data, lead meetings with my peers, and discuss across the grade levels ideas for the motivation of student success.
Objectives and Vision of the action research project
Vision
The goal and vision of my action research project is to increase our commended rating on our economically disadvantaged subgroup of students for reading and math, grades 3-5 by using motivational tools and resources.
Objectives
I carried out this vision by first discussing the action research topic with my site supervisor, with the support of our 2010-2011 benchmark data for our reading and math scores. Once approved, I looked at the economically disadvantaged subgroup for reading and math grades 3-5, and determined what percentage of these students we would need to get a commended score in order to uphold our exemplary rating. At that time, after my data was prepared, I met with each team of teachers (by grade level and subject) to review my findings from the data. This allowed us an opportunity to look at these students and how much further they needed to progress in order to obtain that commended rating. The teachers and I then brainstormed ways to help these students become more confident in themselves and their abilities. At this point I looked at research on the topic of economically disadvantaged students in order to gain a better understanding of how to help them succeed. It was then left up to each team of teachers to organize breakout sessions with their students that we called “commended camp” where they would have small group time to try and motivate their students. After the students completed the state testing, I then look at the results of our hard work in several ways. I discussed the “commended camp” with students who had participated, with teachers who were responsible for the sessions, and finally looking at the results of our state testing to see if we indeed improved our commended scores among this group of students.
Review of Literature and Action Research Strategy
For my action research project, I needed to understand how economically disadvantaged students were different from other subgroups of students. The Southern Education Foundation released a report in 2007 that describes the recent trends of economically disadvantaged students in the South. In their report, they state, “Low income students in Southern states are behind wealthier students by almost all measures of educational progress within their own states and they often have not performed academically as well as other low income students elsewhere in the country” (p. 11). The SEF goes on to say that economically disadvantaged students often receive a lower amount of early education than other students. This leads to significant gaps in education as these children are entering into public schools. It then continues to increase the gap of education received later for the child. Taking into account these considerations, my action research project will focus on this group of students, and will attempt to work on motivating these students who are often behind their peers, in addition to them receiving the academic attention of all other struggling students. At my campus, we are involved heavily in state testing preparation for all students who have received sub-standard scores on our district benchmark tests. These students are worked with very intensely in both the classroom, and with tutors who are brought on to the campus to pull small groups of students during the school day. Because of the intensity given to all of our students, I decided it would be difficult to measure the progress of our economically disadvantaged subgroup solely based on academic intervention alone. This guided me to working with the students on motivation and confidence during test taking. By pulling these students separately from others in the grade level, and working on confidence and motivation, hopefully we will be able to see improvement on test scores if the students feel confident and know that their teachers and fellow classmates believe in them. Chamberlain (2007) states that poverty was found to have a negative effect relationship with student achievement in a study that focused on poverty, school size, and student achievement. Most research indicates that economically disadvantaged students will have a harder time academically than other students. Because of this, I wanted to see how much confidence building and motivation can help these students to succeed in the classroom and on state testing.
Articulate the Vision
Communicating the vision of this project was a critical aspect of my project. To work with all of our economically disadvantaged students, I knew that I needed the help of all of our classroom teachers. My plan for articulating my vision was to meet with each small group of teachers, by grade level and subject, and speak with them just 2 or 3 at a time. This was so I could relate the conversation to their students and to their subject. I also wanted to be sure I had all of the data ready for the teachers about their students, so we could specifically talk about who to include in our commended camp. I wanted to set up the meeting so that we could leave with everyone knowing exactly what they needed to do. This was important because it saved time, and set clear expectations for all parties involved. I also ensured that we were able to brainstorm ways to help motivate these students prior to the end of the meeting. The teachers were never asked to come up with anything on their own, so they wouldn’t feel any pressure that they had to create something new. Taking that stress away from the teachers enabled them to look at my action research project as an opportunity, rather than actual work.
Manage the Organization
In order to ensure I was managing my action research project effectively, I wanted to ensure I planned out my project in detail, so I knew who needed to be involved, how much time they would need to spend on the project, and if I would need any outside funding or help. Below is my action research plan that was completed prior to the start of my action research project.
Action Research Plan | ||||
Goal: To increase our commended rating on our economically disadvantaged subgroup for reading and math, grades 3-5. | ||||
Action Steps(s): | Person(s) Responsible: | Timeline: Start/End | Needed Resources | Evaluation |
1. Discuss Action Research topics with site supervisor. | Myself, Ron McCallon (Site Supervisor), and Dawn Randolph (Assistant Principal) | 2/28/11 – 3/4/11 | * School testing data * Internship Plan | Discussed and created Action Research topic and wonderings |
2. Look at the economically disadvantaged subgroup for reading and math benchmark scores grades 3-5. | Myself, Dawn Randolph (Assistant Principal), Kathy Owings (Coordinator of Assessment and Accountability) and Stephen Travis | 3/7/11 – 3/25/11 | * Benchmark comparison charts * AWARE benchmark data * Benchmark projection data * All data for reading & math benchmark 3, grades 3-5 | Narrow data down to economically disadvantaged subgroup and see the percentage of students that are commended |
3. Meet with teams of teachers on all 3 grade levels for both subjects to review data found in step 2. | Myself | 3/7/11 – 3/25/11 | * Data formulated from step 2. | Discuss student scores and which economically disadvantaged students have the possibility of making a commended score. |
4. Determine plan for teachers to implement from now until the TAKS test to increase confidence in identified groups of students. | Myself and Dawn Randolph (Assistant Principal) | 3/7/11 – 3/25/11 | * Research found on increasing confidence on low income students | Brainstorm ways to motivate this group of students. |
5. Implement motivational strategies discussed in step 4. Teachers will do this for their own kids and subject. | Myself and Dawn Randolph (Assistant Principal) | 3/21/11 – 4/22/11 | * Data presented to teachers on subgroup of students | Receive feedback from teachers about motivational breakout sessions with their students. |
6. Evaluate results of data analysis and motivational sessions with students | Myself and Dawn Randolph (Assistant Principal) | 5/16/11 – 5/27/11 | * TAKS scores from the state | Compare economically disadvantaged subgroup to previous year data to see if there is a difference. |
I was able to follow my action research plan as I was scheduled to. By outlining each procedure, I was able to efficiently and effectively complete my action research project. I also tried to minimize the time that other people were required to spend helping me with my project. For this, I was able to complete all of my data organization and research before I met with the teachers on the grade levels. Therefore, I was able to go into these meetings with detailed information about students, where they currently were academically, and where we needed them to be. Because my project was about increasing the confidence of economically disadvantaged students, I wanted to ensure that I was not being obvious about which students were being invited to these “commended camps.” I didn’t want to single the economically disadvantaged students out, but at the same time, I knew that we needed to ensure these students were participating in our motivational gatherings. Therefore, I came up with the idea to give out invitations to these students, and let them know they were invited to a “special” get together with other students from the grade level because we felt that they were on the road to success. We pulled these students out of their PE and music class once a week, so it was not obvious to other students that they were being pulled out or singled out. This process worked really well. Students who were invited to “commended camp” were excited to be part of a special group, and students that did not attend the camp really didn’t seem to even notice because it was such a small group of students, and was not during class time.
Manage Operations
Leading this project was a great learning opportunity for me because I was able to organize, execute, and evaluate the results of my project. My main goals for this project were for me to be able to stay organized, and to communicate with others on my campus who were helping me execute my research. This required me to complete quite a bit of data analysis and background investigation before I could meet with the teachers on the grade level. Planning out the project with the timeline inserted above really gave me the tools that I needed to stay on track with the project and ensure I was leaving my teachers with enough time to complete the “commended camp” with their students. From our needs assessment, I knew that we needed to increase our commended scores among our economically disadvantaged students. This led me to looking at the completed benchmark scores for the year to see which students were close to or in the range of getting a commended score. My needs assessment really drove my decisions and further steps for my project. In order to look at the benchmark data, I was really required to dig into our data reporting system, AWARE. I did not have much experience in this area, and as I learned, neither did any of the other teachers on my campus. I was able to manipulate data and show the other teachers on my campus specific information about their economically disadvantaged students. This was a very successful part of my project, because I was then able to relay this information to teachers who could use the data in their classrooms to promote students success. Meeting with the teachers also helped me to work on my group process skills. I was able to organize and direct a meeting while conveying my vision for the project and allowing the group to use collaborative decision making skills. Conveying my vision was essential to the success of my project, and I believe I did that well by ensuring the teachers that we needed to do what we could for these economically disadvantaged students to receive the support and help that they needed for academic success. Most of the students that we looked at were students that the teachers agreed do have rough home lives and not as much support as some of their other students. The teachers were very receptive to my ideas and wanted to do whatever they could to provide support for their students. This led us to brainstorming ways to help motivate these students. This is where we were really able to brainstorm and communicate ideas with each other. I left it up to each grade level what, where, when and how they chose to work with their students, but everyone was open to hearing ideas of what my team and myself were doing for our commended camp. I did have some teachers who were wondering why were targeting a specific group of students and not our entire students population. Their concerns allowed me to use the conflict resolution skills that I have learned, to help them understand the basis for my project and why I chose to work with our economically disadvantaged students.
Respond to Community Interest and Needs
My entire research project is centered on economically disadvantaged students. This covers several ethnic backgrounds and most of these students do have special needs. Because of the nature of these students, I made sure to make these students feel included and not isolated because they are different. This was in the forefront of my project the entire time I was conducting my research.
References:
Chamberlin, J.L. (Spring 2007). Poverty, School Size and Charter Designation as Predictors of Student Achievement on a Statewide, High-Stakes Testing Program. Journal of Scholarship and Practice, Vol. 4, No.1., 21-26.
Southern Education Foundation. (2007). A New Majority: Low Income Students in the South’s Public Schools. SEF Research Report. Retrieved from: www.southerneducation.org.
